Hoodfar, who is 65 and suffers from a rare neurological disease that causes severe muscle weakness, was in hospital at one point before being returned to her cell, according to her family. They said she could barely walk or talk.

“She’s very frail, she looks extremely thin … and very worn,” Hoodfar’s colleague and longtime friend, Marguerite Mendell, said at a Concordia University news conference Monday afternoon.

“But she’s free, she’s free and she’s out of Iran, and she will get medical care and medication,” said Mendell, a professor and the graduate program director of the school of community and public affairs.

The Canadian-Iranian anthropology professor Hoodfar was arrested while on a personal and research visit to Iran, her family said.

Canadians relieved, Trudeau says

“Canadians are relieved that Dr. Hoodfar has been released from jail and will soon be reunited with her family, friends and colleagues,” Trudeau said in a statement.

“In the absence of diplomatic representation of its own in Iran, Canada worked closely with others who were instrumental in helping secure Dr. Hoodfar’s release — most notably Oman, Italy and Switzerland.”

Iranian authorities were first to confirm that Hoodfar had been released.

He said when it comes to Canada’s approach of trying to restart diplomatic relations with Iran and reopen an embassy, the Liberals are proceeding step by step.

“Our strategy of cautious engagement is a harder path than that chosen by the previous government, but if we want to make real progress in the promotion of human rights and the security of our allies, it’s the only way forward.”

‘Dabbling in feminism’

Hoodfar had been charged by Iranian authorities with collaborating with a hostile government against national security and with propaganda against the state.

Those charges, however, were never presented to her lawyer. Instead, they were published in the Iranian press, quoting the prosecutor as saying Hoodfar was “dabbling in feminism.”